Director Fernando Trueba calls "Calle 54" a musical, and more power to him. It is not a documentary and it is not "educational." It is a spellbinding hour and 45 minutes of pure music, Latin jazz to be specific.

Trueba is so much a music lover that he lets the music speak for itself. The single best quality of this film, if you ask me, is that he presents each of a dozen numbers complete.

Each piece is allowed to build, grow and take shape. There are no frustrating fade-outs or mere highlights

of best moments. Each song has a beginning, middle and end.

It is easy to imagine "Calle 54" having a long shelf life on home video after its run in theaters. It can be played over and over again with increasing satisfaction.

Trueba is the Spanish director who won a best-foreign-film Oscar for 1992's "Belle Epoque," which introduced Penelope Cruz to this country.

He says that Latino music, "so much in fashion lately, most of the time for the wrong reasons," finds in jazz "its most noble, jubilant, sophisticated and exuberant expression." Then his cameras and a stellar assortment of soloists and groups take off and demonstrate exactly why.

COMING TO AMERICA

The musicians come from Spain, Cuba, Brazil, the Dominican Republic and New York. They are seen first for a brief introduction on their home ground on their way to New York and a recording studio on 54th Street (Calle 54), where the performances were shot.

Trueba used multiple cameras to be ready to catch the improvisational heart of the music -- and, in the post-session editing, anticipate it -- but the supple cinematography does not call attention to itself. It serves the music.

The director has put his stamp on "Calle 54" through his choice of musicians, which he admits is completely subjective. It is his desire to share the bounty.

PUENTE'S CONTRIBUTIONS

Among the performers is the late Tito Puente, who, in addition to ecstatic contributions on timbales and vibraphone, shows off a mural that commemorates such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Machito, Cal Tjader and Miles Davis. All in white, making curlicues in the air with his sticks, his tongue sticking out,

showman Puente takes everyone along with him in his orbit.

The procession of performances invites the viewer to pick favorites. Among my own:

Spanish pianist Chano Dominguez and his group, with raw vocalism, in the propulsive "Oye Como Viene," a blending of flamenco and jazz that even includes a flamenco dancer (in loafers!). The sequence begins, somewhat mysteriously, in isolated close-ups; only later do we see the group as a whole.

Pianist Michel Camilo playing "From Within," which keeps growing in rhythmic complexity as it moves right to its target. "How can they top this?" my notes say.

There's more.

Alto sax player Paquito D'Rivera is first seen coming out of his house in the snowy New Jersey suburbs. "There's no remedy for the blues like the sound of a sax," says narrator Trueba, who makes a brief introduction to each performance.

Chico O'Farrill, approaching 80, conducts his classic big-band "Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite." There is a quick cut to black-and-white, recalling the era when he thrived. The old man seems restored to life in front of the band.